The barren surface of Xyris is mainly cold desert. Some temperate forest lies around the seas, and there are large expanses of 'grass'-land, though the grass is yellow and has leaves wrapped around like a cylinder. Animals survive here, mainly in the forests.

The Sikhean Brotherhood have built a number of cities and fortresses near the planet's Southern mountains, as well as a few spaceports and defence batteries. They have large refineries and factories that carve into the rock, and quarried caverns are converted into nuclear reactors for power.